# E-Commerce - CMS Site

**URL:** <https://discourse.softpress.com/t/e-commerce-cms-site/18276>\
**Category:** Freeway\
**Created:** [August 19, 2013, 2:03pm UTC](https://discourse.softpress.com/t/e-commerce-cms-site/18276 "2013-08-19T14:03:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 15\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mike\_Thornley](https://discourse.softpress.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/aca169/32.png) [@Mike\_Thornley](https://discourse.softpress.com/u/Mike_Thornley)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 2:03pm UTC](https://discourse.softpress.com/t/e-commerce-cms-site/18276/1 "2013-08-19T14:03:46Z")

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Hi All

I have been asked to quote a potential new client, who are right on my doorstep, to produce a new e-commerce site with CMS functionality. (To replace existing that is looking very old)

They sell lots of products and want the option to edit and add prodcuts, make changes for themselves.

I would like to be able to take this on, but use freeway as much as possible.

So lots of advise needed please on options on how to proceed.

I have done e-commerce sites in freeway before but not with CMS.

Thanks all  
Mike

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**Author:** ![Todd1](https://discourse.softpress.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/838e76/32.png) [@Todd1](https://discourse.softpress.com/u/Todd1)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 3:15pm UTC](https://discourse.softpress.com/t/e-commerce-cms-site/18276/2 "2013-08-19T15:15:31Z")

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Some lightweight CMS offer e-commerce plugins/addons like FoxyCart for Perch for example, and I’m sure the Big Boy CMS like Drupal, Joomla, EE have their own integrated systems. Obviously the benefit is deeper CMS integration which is, I think, what you’re looking for, but your options may be somewhat limited or the CMS may be overkill. So the question is what level of CMS do you need?

Todd  
[http://xiiro.com](http://xiiro.com)

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**Author:** ![Mike\_Thornley](https://discourse.softpress.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/aca169/32.png) [@Mike\_Thornley](https://discourse.softpress.com/u/Mike_Thornley)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 4:08pm UTC](https://discourse.softpress.com/t/e-commerce-cms-site/18276/3 "2013-08-19T16:08:57Z")

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Client wants to be able to add products, change prices, edit the description of products etc.

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**Author:** ![Todd1](https://discourse.softpress.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/838e76/32.png) [@Todd1](https://discourse.softpress.com/u/Todd1)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 4:22pm UTC](https://discourse.softpress.com/t/e-commerce-cms-site/18276/4 "2013-08-19T16:22:48Z")

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Joomla! has an extensive list of e-commerce extensions [http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/e-commerce](http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/e-commerce).  
Expression Engine [https://exp-resso.com/store](https://exp-resso.com/store) (there are several other options).

Both have FW Action suites.

If those don’t work for you then look at 3rd Party options like:

shopify [http://www.shopify.com](http://www.shopify.com)  
tomato cart [http://www.tomatocart.com](http://www.tomatocart.com)  
Ecwid [http://www.ecwid.com](http://www.ecwid.com)  
AmberCart [http://www.ambercart.com](http://www.ambercart.com)  
FoxyCart [http://www.foxycart.com](http://www.foxycart.com)

Todd

> **[Xiiro.com is for sale | HugeDomains](https://www.hugedomains.com/domain_profile.cfm?d=xiiro.com)**
>
> Great prices on a large selection of domains. Find the pefect domain for your new startup.

> Client wants to be able to add products, change prices, edit the description of products etc.

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**Author:** ![Mike\_Thornley](https://discourse.softpress.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/aca169/32.png) [@Mike\_Thornley](https://discourse.softpress.com/u/Mike_Thornley)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 4:51pm UTC](https://discourse.softpress.com/t/e-commerce-cms-site/18276/5 "2013-08-19T16:51:27Z")

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Just check the current site is done in Zen-Cart

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**Author:** ![RavenManiac](https://discourse.softpress.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/91b2a8/32.png) [@RavenManiac](https://discourse.softpress.com/u/RavenManiac)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 6:38pm UTC](https://discourse.softpress.com/t/e-commerce-cms-site/18276/6 "2013-08-19T18:38:34Z")

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Mike, I may be embarking on something similar for an existing client. I’m strongly considering Joomla. Please keep us posted on what platform you decide to go with.

Do you have a link to the existing site so we can see what kind of functionality you need?

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**Author:** ![Helveticus](https://discourse.softpress.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/eada6e/32.png) [@Helveticus](https://discourse.softpress.com/u/Helveticus)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 7:04pm UTC](https://discourse.softpress.com/t/e-commerce-cms-site/18276/7 "2013-08-19T19:04:05Z")

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I still have 2 sites that uses Mals and FW but the sales are very very low and each site only has 5 or 6 products.  
After trying to crowbar various carts into FW I now only use Shopify - [http://www.shopify.com](http://www.shopify.com)

Top Shopify benefits for me:

- Easy to customize (with some basic knowledge of CSS and HTML)
- Responsive templates
- SSL Certificate included
- Hosted, so you never have to worry about updating to the latest version
- Integrated payments - Shopify just launched their own merchant service
- Client can update/edit their own products
- Plays nicely with SEO and Social Media
- Fixed monthly price
- Blog
- Tons of plugins

Cheers  
Marcel

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**Author:** ![Mike\_Thornley](https://discourse.softpress.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/aca169/32.png) [@Mike\_Thornley](https://discourse.softpress.com/u/Mike_Thornley)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 7:18pm UTC](https://discourse.softpress.com/t/e-commerce-cms-site/18276/8 "2013-08-19T19:18:39Z")

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This is the site

> **[Home | Chemodex | Lubricants & Chemical Suppliers](https://www.chemodex.co.uk)**
>
> Chemodex, based in Worksop, are a leading supplier of high performance lubricants, oils and chemical products. Tel: 01909 473301

So which way to go - I do like the look of Shopify though.

But I cannot go quoting on work if I cannot deliver a proper commercially acceptable solution.

Mike

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**Author:** ![Mike\_Thornley](https://discourse.softpress.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/aca169/32.png) [@Mike\_Thornley](https://discourse.softpress.com/u/Mike_Thornley)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 7:22pm UTC](https://discourse.softpress.com/t/e-commerce-cms-site/18276/9 "2013-08-19T19:22:25Z")

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Hi Raven

Very keen to learn Joomla myself, one of my other clients that use me for design and print employ a web guy full time and I have been speaking with him today about this.

He is going to set me up a fake site on Joomla so I can have a play with to get some understanding.

Feel very frustrated at time because of my lack of skills when it comes to the web. I come from a traditional print and design background, I now wish I had got into this earlier.

Mike

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**Author:** ![davedesigner](https://discourse.softpress.com/user_avatar/discourse.softpress.com/davedesigner/32/61_2.png) [@davedesigner](https://discourse.softpress.com/u/davedesigner)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 7:33pm UTC](https://discourse.softpress.com/t/e-commerce-cms-site/18276/10 "2013-08-19T19:33:54Z")

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Hi Mike,

Take a look in the hosting control panel. You can quickly install and test any or all of the following shopping carts…

Zen Cart  
OsCommerce  
Open Cart  
Agora Cart  
PrestaShop  
Tomato Cart

Open Cart is pretty good looking ‘pretty’ by default compared to the rest. If nothing else it would widen your arsenal for client options by experiencing first hand how these shops work.

David Owen

> **[Mac friendly web hosting and domains for Wordpress, RapidWeaver, Blocs, Xway,...](https://ineedwebhosting.uk)**
>
> Choose Great Value Web Hosting. Great tech. Great value. Great support.

On 19 Aug 2013, at 20:18, “Mike Thornley” [email@hidden](mailto:email@hidden) wrote:

> This is the site
> 
> [http://www.chemodex.co.uk](http://www.chemodex.co.uk)
> 
> So which way to go - I do like the look of Shopify though.
> 
> But I cannot go quoting on work if I cannot deliver a proper commercially acceptable solution.
> 
> Mike
> 
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> freewaytalk mailing list  
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**Author:** ![davedesigner](https://discourse.softpress.com/user_avatar/discourse.softpress.com/davedesigner/32/61_2.png) [@davedesigner](https://discourse.softpress.com/u/davedesigner)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 7:38pm UTC](https://discourse.softpress.com/t/e-commerce-cms-site/18276/11 "2013-08-19T19:38:18Z")

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Again, install Joomla from the scripts available. Install it in a folder of your choice direct from your hosting account scripts - one click any your off.

Don’t like the script? Delete the folder and then the database.

Many forget these scripts are available and so easy to install so forgive me going on 🙂

Play around learn and enjoy.

David Owen

> **[Mac friendly web hosting and domains for Wordpress, RapidWeaver, Blocs, Xway,...](https://ineedwebhosting.uk)**
>
> Choose Great Value Web Hosting. Great tech. Great value. Great support.

On 19 Aug 2013, at 20:22, “Mike Thornley” [email@hidden](mailto:email@hidden) wrote:

> He is going to set me up a fake site on Joomla so I can have a play with to get some understanding

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**Author:** ![Todd1](https://discourse.softpress.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/838e76/32.png) [@Todd1](https://discourse.softpress.com/u/Todd1)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 7:44pm UTC](https://discourse.softpress.com/t/e-commerce-cms-site/18276/12 "2013-08-19T19:44:15Z")

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Mike,

As the resident MODX [http://modx.com](http://modx.com) advocate around here you may want to look into that option as well. It doesn’t offer much in the way of native e-commerce plugins but you can certainly use any of the other carts I, Marcel and David mentioned. You can even use FW to design the templates.

Todd  
[http://xiiro.com](http://xiiro.com)

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**Author:** ![Helveticus](https://discourse.softpress.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/eada6e/32.png) [@Helveticus](https://discourse.softpress.com/u/Helveticus)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 9:58pm UTC](https://discourse.softpress.com/t/e-commerce-cms-site/18276/13 "2013-08-19T21:58:31Z")

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> But I cannot go quoting on work if I cannot deliver a proper commercially acceptable solution.

You will definitely be able to do that with Shopify - here’s one rebuilt in Shopify - used to be OpenCart [Registrant WHOIS contact information verification | Namecheap.com](http://bit.ly/YA8ekF)  
Might be a longer shot to do that with Joomla, especially if you have no experience with it.

> Zen Cart OsCommerce Open Cart Agora Cart PrestaShop Tomato Cart. Open Cart is pretty good looking ‘pretty’ by default compared to the rest.

OpenCart is a winner compared to the others. I have used it before switching to Shopify - [OpenCart - Open Source Shopping Cart Solution](http://www.opencart.com/index.php?route=common/home)

Opencart was very easy to customize and use, the user community is also quite helpful. The trouble was when you have used a plugin and the developer of that particular plugin is not current with his plugin you’re screwed. I had a site with a blog module and the developer was a few versions behind. Sometimes the developers make massive changes in the architecture and maintaining the upgrades can become problematic especially if you have tweaked a lot of code when customizing your site template.

Marcel

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**Author:** ![RavenManiac](https://discourse.softpress.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/91b2a8/32.png) [@RavenManiac](https://discourse.softpress.com/u/RavenManiac)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 1:42pm UTC](https://discourse.softpress.com/t/e-commerce-cms-site/18276/14 "2013-08-20T13:42:11Z")

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> On 19 Aug 2013, 9:58 pm, Helveticus wrote:
> 
> You will definitely be able to do that with Shopify - here’s one rebuilt in Shopify - used to be OpenCart [Registrant WHOIS contact information verification | Namecheap.com](http://bit.ly/YA8ekF)
> 
> Marcel

Marcel, nice job with Shopify. I hadn’t heard of that. Perhaps a FWP/Shopify combination is the way to go. How long did it take you to get up to speed. Is a Freeway action required to make this work?

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**Author:** ![Agent](https://discourse.softpress.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/ec9cab/32.png) [@Agent](https://discourse.softpress.com/u/Agent)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 7:46am UTC](https://discourse.softpress.com/t/e-commerce-cms-site/18276/15 "2016-04-06T07:46:32Z")

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Thank you for some good ideas! I’m a newbie in web design and I got interested in website builders. I have found on [http://www.webbuildersguide.com/](http://www.webbuildersguide.com/) information about BigCommerce Web Site Builder. What can you say about this tool? Can I use it to create a site for a small company that sells books? Thanks in advance.

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